Pubdate: Thu, 31 May 2007
Source: Belfast Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2007 Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/42
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)

SEARCHERS MUST TACKLE JAIL DRUG SCOURGE

Alarming figures showing how many prisoners in Northern  Ireland are
using drugs indicate that there is an  urgent need to find ways of
stopping the supplies.  Although the percentage of positive tests
dropped from  25% in 2005 to 15% last year, this compares to just 7%
in 2002, when the problem surfaced.

The stark fact is that drugs showed up in nearly 2,000  tests carried
out during the last two years in Ulster's  prisons, at Maghaberry,
Magilligan and Hydebank. There  is no indication of how they were
obtained, but the  main source must be visitors to prison, as in Britain.

Finding an answer will not be easy, since prison staff  are stretched
and searching for drugs is not their top  priority. But if we have
reached the state, comparable  to Britain, where drugs are as easy to
obtain in prison  as on the streets, far more attention - and
resources -  must be devoted to the problem.

The "high security" Maghaberry prison is the greatest  offender, with
almost one in three drugs tests, over  the past three years, showing
positive. In Hydebank,  where young people are held, there was an
encouraging  drop from 27% in 2005 to 8% last year.

Whatever the authorities are doing, searching both  prisoners and
visitors, it is clearly not enough. Since  the release of terrorist
prisoners, after the Good  Friday Agreement, there is a suspicion that
discipline  has been relaxed, along with the numbers of guards on
duty, allowing the drugs trade to flourish.

While the Northern Ireland figure of 15% positive  results last year
compares favourably with Britain, it  could be only the tip of the
iceberg. Here the tests  are voluntary, in return for privileges,
whereas in  Britain there is mandatory drug testing once a month on
5% of inmates. Hardened drug users are unlikely to  volunteer here for
testing.

Since a relatively high percentage of prisoners will  already be
taking drugs, the prison service should be  learning from best
practice elsewhere, in intercepting  the supply and offering
rehabilitation. Searching  should be a routine procedure, for
prisoners and  visitors, and more use of CCTV and sniffer dogs would
help.

Former prisoners, in Britain, have described the  ingenious methods
used to bring in drugs, which must be  countered. Visitors would have
cannabis in condoms,  passed to the prisoners, or drugs might be
thrown over  prison walls from a nearby road.

Prisoners who are on drugs are usually easier for the  prison
authorities to deal with, so a blind eye may  often be turned. But
society is left with a problem,  after their release, and greater
vigilance, combined  with better in-prison rehabilitation, must be the
best  answer. Drugs provide no solutions, inside or outside  prison.
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MAP posted-by: Steve Heath